1 . Scientists discovered that fewer humpback whales made the singing noises, as their population grew. “It was getting more difficult to actually find singers,” marine biologist Rebecca Dunlop in Brisbane said. She added, “When there were fewer of them, there was a lot of singing-now that there are lots of them, no need to be singing so much.”

Eastern Australia’s humpback whales came close to disappearing in the 1960s. With the end of commercial whaling (捕鲸), the population began to regrow, climbing to about 27,000 whales by 2015. That number is near estimated pre-whaling levels. As the density (密度) of whales increased, their singing behaviors changed. While 2 in 10 males made crying noises in 2004, 10 years later the number had dropped to 1 in 10, Dunlop said.

The team’s study appeared in a recent issue of Nature Communications Biology. Dunlop said she thinks singing played a big part in bringing in mates when populations severely declined. When humpbacks live in denser populations, males looking for mates also have to deal with competing whales.

Boris Worm, an ocean biologist, was not involved in the research. “As animal populations recover, they change their behavior-they have different cries,” Worm said. The research suggests the seas are still noisy with humpback whale sounds.

Many humpbacks seek to bring in mates with a combination of singing and physical movements, the study notes. The large increase in the humpback population during the study period provided valuable data about changes in the animals’ behavior and they must have been singers long before whaling reduced their numbers, said Simon Ingram. But the new study demonstrates (证明) how necessary their complex and beautiful songs were to their survival and recovery, he added.

1. Which may make humpback whales sing in the discovery?

A．The power of waves.	B．The use of microphone.
C．The feeling of loneliness.	D．The increase of their numbers.

2. What does Paragraph 2 mainly say about humpback whales?

A．Their sudden disappearance.	B．Their sharp rise in numbers.
C．Their being well protected.	D．Their change in behaviors.

3. What does the underlined word “declined” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Increased.

B．Dropped.

C．Climbed.

D．Recovered.

4. Which does Simon Ingram agree?

A．Humpbacks’ behaviors have never changed.

B．Humpbacks’ numbers increased by whaling.

C．Humpbacks’ singing noises are important.

D．Humpbacks’ singing will disappear soon.

2 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容或括号内单词的正确形式。

Light pollution is a serious problem. This became completely obvious when the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, a computer-created map based on thousands of satellite (卫星) photos,     1     (publish) in 2016. The map shows how and where     2    (we) world is lit up at night. Large areas of North America, Europe, and Asia are glowing (发光) with light, while only the most remote (偏远的) places on Earth are in total darkness. Some of the most light-polluted    3     (country) in the world are Singapore, Qatar, and Kuwait.

Sky glow is the brightening of the night sky, mostly over cities, because    4    the electric lights of cars, streetlamps, offices, factories and buildings, turning night into day.

People     5     live in cities with high levels of sky glow have a hard time     6     (see) stars at night. Scientists are     7     (particular) worried about sky glow pollution as it influences their ability     8     (view) space.

According to research, more    9     80% of the world’s population, and 99% of Americans and Europeans, live under sky glow. It sounds pretty, but sky glow    10    (cause) by human activities is one of the most common forms of light pollution.

3 . Tens of thousands of nature lovers see black bears and grizzly bears each year    1    But for the unfortunate few, bear encounters can lead to serious injury or death. If you come upon a bear in its natural setting, your first reaction may be to feel frightened. But staying safe depends on acting carefully and calmly.

    2    Some people would suggest running away, but bears can run much faster than humans can. Others say a person should drop to the ground and play dead.    3    It is best to be as educated as possible about different bear behaviors before you head into the wild.

If a bear is coming towards you, you must first determine if the bear attack is defensive（such as when protecting young bears）or predatory（捕食性的）（such as when hunting）.    4    Most grizzly bear attacks are defensive. When a bear is defensive, it is feeling threatened. Dropping to the ground is an effective way to show the bear that you are not a threat.

Black bears do not often challenge humans, but when they do, their attacks are usually predatory. Bears do not feel threatened when they are hunting, so playing dead will not help you stay safe. During a predatory bear attack, the first thing you should do is drop any food you have and back away. If the bear still comes towards you, make as much noise as possible by shouting and hitting objects.    5    . You can also use pepper spray（喷雾）during a bear attack. Always bring it with you in the wild, and have it ready to use without delay.

A．It is a good idea to collect some facts about bears.

B．Your frightening behaviour can make the bear back down.

C．Most walk away with exciting memories and photographs.

D．That turns out to be a hint in some situations but not in others.

E．Black bears and grizzly bears are likely to attack for different reasons.

F．You should learn some life-saving skills before going on a hike in the wild.

G．There are many ideas about how a person should react when faced with bears.

4 . Perhaps you know northern Americans still maintain the habit of celebrating Groundhog Day when a large groundhog (土拨鼠) checks to see its shadow on February 2 and helps to predict when winter will end. But have you ever heard about how a mountain town in North Carolina uses a caterpillar (毛毛虫) known as the Woolly Worm to make similar predictions?

According to the folklore (民间传说), the amount of black on the woolly worm in autumn predicts the severity of the upcoming winter. The longer the woolly worm’s black bands (带) are, the longer, colder, snowier, and more severe the winter will be. Similarly, a wider middle brown band is a sign of a milder upcoming winter. The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest or hardest. If the head end of the caterpillar is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe. If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold. In addition, the caterpillar has 13 segments (昆虫的节/段) to its body, which traditional forecasters say correspond to the 13 weeks of winter.

Scientific studies on worm forecasting are rare. American Museum of Natural History entomologist Howard Curran conducted a small trial in 1948. Having heard about the caterpillar folklore, Curran headed to Bear Mountain State Park to collect caterpillars each fall for eight years. He found that if the worms had brown markings on more than a third of their body, winters tended to be milder.

Most scientists view the folklore of caterpillar predictions as just that, folklore. “It’s a wonderful story, but I do think it was a playful trial,” says Joe Boggs, an entomologist at Ohio State University Extension who has studied woolly worms. “Curran was a real scientist. He had tons of papers published, but he never published this one — probably because he knew it wouldn’t stand up to peer review.”

Mike Peters, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts, doesn’t disagree, but he says there could be a link between the band of a caterpillar and the severity of winter. Peters suggests that the timing of their growth and environmental conditions, such as temperature, moisture levels, and food sources, can impact the appearance of woolly worms, including their size, coloration, and band patterns. By analyzing these characteristics, researchers can potentially infer information about the weather conditions. “The band does say something about a heavy winter,” he says. “The only thing is that it’s telling you about the previous year.”

1. How do people predict the weather through caterpillars?

A．By analyzing their living habits.

B．By measuring the change of their size.

C．By calculating the number of their segments.

D．By studying color bands on their bodies.

2. What is Howard Curran’s finding based on?

A．His personal observations.

B．An investigation on the locals.

C．Studies by previous scientists.

D．Statistics collected by the museum.

3. What is Joe Boggs’s attitude towards the folklore?

A．Positive.

B．Indifferent.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

4. Which statement might Mike Peters agree with?

A．The caterpillar forecasting needs long-term data to support it.

B．The color band of caterpillars can be a mirror of past weather.

C．The cold environment has a great impact on caterpillars’ growth.

D．The caterpillar can help predict the severity of winter accurately.

5 . 假如你是李华。你生活的城市即将举行一场以“建设与自然共生的理想家园”为主题的英语演讲比赛。请写一篇演讲稿，要点如下：
1.对该主题的理解；
2.本市的有效做法；
3.你的倡议。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.短文的题目已为你写好。

A Dream City at One with Nature

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . Many areas of the world suffer from low rainfall, and with climate change, the water shortage (短缺) is increasingly becoming a problem in some places. So more and more people, companies and governments are now looking for ways to make houses completely self-sufficient in water－providing it and dealing with it themselves.

In some houses in rural areas of Australia, the owners are doing exactly this. Although the houses are in a suburb called Gelorup, only 10 kilometres from the city of Bunbury, they do not have water supplied to them. Instead, water is collected on the roof and from the channels (排水沟) and then run into underground pipes that lead to a large water tank (箱). From the tank the water purified (净化) in the underground system is sent back to the house to meet all household needs from drinking to cleaning toilets. Because of this, no one in the households can use strong chemicals for cleaning and washing.

We produce different kinds of water waste from our homes. Black water is the waste water that comes from our toilets, but most of our waste water is actually grey water. This is the waste water produced by people having showers or baths, washing their hands or faces in the sink, and washing their clothes or dishes. However, while grey water is not drinkable, there are many ways in which it can be reused around the home. With water recycling systems, grey water can be collected and made safe enough to use on gardens and for cleaning toilets.

The process of treating and transporting water produces large amounts of carbon emissions. So if we all began to recycle our grey water, it could radically reduce the impact on the environment. The use of water recycling systems would also help with the problems of water shortage faced in many areas of the world. Water recycling, it seems, must have an important place in our future.

1. What information does paragraph 2 mainly tell us?

A．Why the water should be recycled.

B．How the water recycling system works.

C．What difficulties the house owners are facing.

D．Why strong chemicals may be used for cleaning and washing.

2. What can we do to deal with the waste water?

A．We should know the different kinds of waste water.

B．We should reduce it by not having showers or baths.

C．We should find some ways to reuse the recyclable waste water.

D．We should drink the waste water purified by water recycling systems.

3. Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word in the last paragraph?

A．greatly

B．creatively

C．likely

D．regularly

4. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

A．Water recycling: the way of the future

B．Saving water: the immediate need

C．House owners: the different choice

D．Grey water: the most important point

7 . Cristina Mittermeier is a marine biologist, activist and multi-award-winning photographer who has given her life to ocean protection. Recognised as being one of the world’s most influential conservation photographers, Cristina has travelled to 132 countries to achieve her goal — to communicate the immediate need to protect wild places.

She began her career as a marine biologist, but soon realised that she could better work for the interests of the oceans and the planet through her camera than with scientific data. In her eyes, science is basic to understanding what is happening to our planet, but it fails to convey (传递) the emotions that make us care.

According to Cristina, photography allows us to humanise (使人性化) stories and create something meaningful, and she had an urgent need to share the difficult situation of the planet. For her, it’s all about the emotional connections we can establish with the subject matter. She loves creating pictures that engages people in conversations and makes them stop and think. Establishing a successful career as a photographer has not been an easy journey. She worked hard at teaching herself the basics of photography and then she went back to school to learn more about the underpinnings of fine art.

When asked what has inspired her focus on marine life, she replied, “The ocean is barely mentioned but it is the largest ecosystem on our planet and is the ecosystem that has the most influence on Earth. It absorbs at least 25% of all emissions and most of the heat on our planet. I want people to recognise that the ocean isn’t just hurt by climate change — it is our solution. If our oceans die — and they are dying — we will die with them. Life on Earth is not possible without a living ocean.”

1. What goal did Cristina intend to achieve in her travels?

A．To take more wonderful pictures.

B．To urge people to protect the wild places.

C．To work for the non-for-profit organization.

D．To become the world’s most influential photographer.

2. What makes Cristina think she can better work as a photographer?

A．She was bored with her career as a marine biologist.

B．She can’t understand what is happening to our planet.

C．She can convey emotional information through her camera.

D．She wants to establish a successful career as a photographer.

3. Why does Cristina focus on the ocean?

A．Because of the marine life.

B．Because of the great emissions.

C．Because of her love for the ocean.

D．Because of the ocean’s importance.

4. Which of the following can best describe Cristina?

A．Powerful.

B．Patient.

C．Responsible.

D．Intelligent.

8 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. How many years has Reshma Kosaraju lived in California?

A．About 5 years.

B．About 7 years.

C．About 12 years.

2. What did Nihal’s organization do to protect Mother Earth?

A．They created a way to predict forest fires.

B．They helped save sharks.

C．They recycled batteries.

3. What can people buy on Miles Fetherston-Resch’s website?

A．Some clean water.

B．Some clothes.

C．Some masks.

9 . Playing in the backyard with other dogs, Joey looks like any other playful dog except for one difference: With only two back legs, he travels ______ by jumping.

Born to a family in Connecticut, Joey was the only puppy in his litter (一窝幼崽) who wasn’t ______ because of his disability. The family didn’t know what to do with him, so they ______ Vintage Pet Rescue, a non-profit organization ______ dogs with special medical needs.

Joey arrived Vintage Pet Rescue in July, where he ______ Cathy Larson, who then became Joey’s adopter. According to Larson, when she first came across Joey, she “ ______ fell in love with him.” With five other dogs, Larson knew Joey had to be a ______ of their group. Once Larson took Joey home, her other dogs ______ him right away. But Joey still has some ______ because when it comes to doing everyday things, he needs ______ help. However, Larson says Joey is very good at letting them know when he ______ something.

Larson describes Joey as a (n) “ ______ little guy” who loves playing with other dogs and meeting new people. His next adventure will take place on the football field when he ______ as part of Team Ruff at Puppy Bowl XIX against another team.

Larson “can’t imagine life without Joey” and says if you have the time to ______ a dog with special needs, do it. “Their limitation doesn’t make them any ______ .” Larson says. “They have all that love inside and they are just willing to give it freely.”

1.

A．even

B．still

C．just

D．rather

2.

A．cured

B．recognized

C．adopted

D．praised

3.

A．contacted

B．founded

C．recommended

D．informed

4.

A．training

B．helping

C．buying

D．walking

5.

A．missed

B．remembered

C．refused

D．met

6.

A．immediately

B．gradually

C．eventually

D．suddenly

7.

A．leader

B．member

C．supporter

D．adviser

8.

A．observed

B．killed

C．abandoned

D．accepted

9.

A．illnesses

B．tasks

C．struggles

D．rules

10.

A．extra

B．enormous

C．professional

D．voluntary

11.

A．eats

B．needs

C．notices

D．realizes

12.

A．strange

B．adventurous

C．weak

D．patient

13.

A．competes

B．works

C．performs

D．stays

14.

A．look into

B．calm down

C．care for

D．pick up

15.

A．smart

B．curious

C．attractive

D．different

10 . As Earth’s climate continues to change, a plant’s ability to adapt to its changing environment is important to its survival. Often, to stay alive, a plant must move locations by releasing its seeds, but plants are rooted in the ground and cannot move themselves. Instead, they are dependent on animals or the wind to carry their seeds to a new location.

Playing an essential part in an ecosystem (生态系统), plants create resources like food and medicine for us human beings. A team of researchers developed the model to better understand how plants can stay resiliency (韧性) when facing challenges like climate change.

“Once seeds are released from a plant, we wanted to know how far they can go because as wind conditions shake, the seeds will be moved around differently because of various weights, sizes, and shapes,” says Binbin Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri.

Changes in one part of the ecosystem can create a “snowball effect” on other parts. That’s why understanding seed spread is important. Plants can only make this move once during their life — as a seed, says Lauren Sullivan, an assistant professor at Michigan State University.

“Understanding how plants move as seeds year-round is important for us to analyze how they’ll be able to handle climate change,” Sullivan says. “This movement is also important for how we can increase diversity (多样性) in the ecosystem.” “We’re now able to partner with researchers. This innovative approach can help us develop accurate models that are simple enough to make good predictions in a short time.”

The model, which makes predictions based on seed and plant type, plant height, and wind speed, can develop an entire year’s worth of predictive data in just one or two days. As part of their future work, the team will develop educational programming for K-12 and college students. For example, they will provide opportunities for college students to explore how different disciplines, such as agriculture, biological sciences, and engineering, can work together to solve different real-world problems.

1. Why did the researchers develop the model?

A．To learn how plants handle challenges like climate change.

B．To find out what helps seeds travel to different places.

C．To study the effects climate change has on plants.

D．To create more food and medicine resources.

2. Which of the following may not influence how far a seed can travel according to Binbin Wang?

A．Its weight.

B．Its location.

C．Its size.

D．Its shape.

3. What can we learn about the “movement” of plants from paragraph 4 and 5?

A．It is caused by the change of the climate.

B．It can happen during the whole life of a plant.

C．It has an effect on other parts of the ecosystem.

D．It’s hard to be predicted for the diversity of ecosystem.

4. What do the researchers plan to do next?

A．Explore different disciplines for college students.

B．Work together to solve different real-world problems.

C．Develop educational programming for students to explore.

D．Make valuable predictions about the type and height of the plants.